Role Model

As I mentioned in the previous entry I decided to head to the gym. It was an impromptu decision and so I didn’t have my clothes. I wasn’t planning on doing anything too strenuous, so I just took off the button-down shirt I had on and was doing some light lifting in my wife beater and khakis.

As I was sitting down to do the bench the gym’s trainer came up to me. Marc has told me that he’s come up to him before and told him that his form was bad or whatever. I figured that I was going to get a tip of some sort. I do drop my wrists back on bench if I’m not watching and I thought maybe he was going to tell me that.

It turns out that he wanted to tell me I wasn’t supposed to work out in khakis. He said that it was bad for the gym if I was wearing khakis. I was a bit confused by this. I can understand why it is a bad idea for me to dirty my nice pants on grubby gym equipment, but as to why the gym should care I couldn’t figure. Well, I hadn’t taken into account my weight as a trend setter. He told me that if I woke my pants to work out in pretty soon everyone would be.

I must admit, I like myself in a tank top and khakis. It is actually my club outfit sometimes. Perhaps I should be more cautious with my sexiness. ☺ At the very least, I, as an American, do carry a certain weight. Cool comes from America for Mauritania because that’s where the music and movies come from. I don’t really believe that anyone would start wearing khakis because of me, but it did convey a certain sense of efficacy to have someone caution me about leading others astray with my coolness.

Not that I didn’t argue with the guy. I have become quite obnoxious. Back in the States I was obnoxious, but I wasn’t confrontational. If someone said something to me I thought was dumb I’d do it and then sulk to my friends. Now, I just bicker with them. Unfortunately, my sarcastic and questioning tones are pretty much identical in French. So when I come out with “you think that if I wear pants everyone is going to do the same thing?” instead of the intended “what is your malfunction?” I convey “huh? I don’t understand the words coming out of your mouth.” It is probably better that way since I think people would be pissed if they realized how rude I am trying to be.